Audio streamingStreaming & Technology

Rarely has the Hi-Fi market been so exciting, with the arrival of music streaming from computers and media drives sparking huge debates as to the merits of everything from file types to the best place to site the digital to analogue converter (DAC). All good fun and at Audio T you can come and hear the differences for yourself in one of our demonstration rooms.

The simplest way to stream music is to send the digital files straight to your hi-fi where they are decoded by a digital to analogue converter (DAC) and played back just like any other hi-fi component. Alternatively these files can be stored on a network attached storage drive (NAS) from where they can be accessed anywhere on a home network. This, in turn, has led to manufacturers producing systems that allow multi-room streaming. The best known of these is Sonos and this system actually creates its own network, separate from your main wireless one, making it easier to set up (though many customers ask us to do it for them!)

The newest option for streaming your music is to do this directly from a phone or tablet straight to an Airplay or Bluetooth loudspeaker. These have built in amplification and can take the streaming signal directly from your hand held device (with Bluetooth) or both directly or via your network (with Airplay). This makes for a very simple solution though the quality from these one box systems won’t be as good as two stereo speakers. For many situations, however, they can be a simple solution. The ability to play music in any room of your home, without needing to look for a disc first is extremely liberating. Imagine having instant access to all of your music and indeed online sources of music with over 20 million songs in every room! So use the filters on the left hand side to checkout the products we sell, either by brand or by type.